Weekly Blog Post 11/9/2021
The other week I was asked to bring in an inspirational text to share with the class in Creative Studios. When given the prompt, I knew I would choose something from David Chang's memoir. Naturally, I settled on his list of rules in the back of the book and picked a few points that stuck out to share. After submitting this, I questioned if this was inspirational in any way. A list of rules? But to me, it was. This is how I function, following guidelines set forth by myself and superiors. A lot of the rules to being a good chef I already followed from several years of practice and even just the work ethic my parents had instilled in me from a young age. Chang's rules have also made me reflect on how much some of these values go into shaping my craft as an artist/chef, whether it's intentional or not.
Thinking about these rules also reminded me of a favorite artist, Tom Sachs, and his 10 bullets or code of conduct working in the studio. Again, another list of rules that I greatly admire and had probably seen before David's. The lines were starting to blur for me between these worlds of creatives and their many lists and rules. After all, in the words of Alice Waters, "...they are both reactive and creative, imitating and adapting to each other." I don't gripe with them and hope to find more lists and rules because I find myself walking this line. (Need to revisit Adam Savage's book Every Tool is a Hammer and his spiel on lists and maybe some of his working philosophy)
As cool as it is to look at other artists' practices and worship them, I am my own person, and not all my priorities align precisely with them. No doubt I share values with Tom and David, but who's to say I can't have my list. Almost around a year ago, sadly wasn't dated in my notebook; I started jotting down things I learned working in the kitchen. It was towards the end of the semester, and I thought it could make a fantastic project idea headed into professional practices. Most of what I jotted down were quick blurbs of primarily technical know-how in the kitchen, yet you can synthesize lessons from some of them. Maybe not lessons but rules and guidelines to hone my way of thinking to create projects and food. I want to explore this manifesto idea further and possibly include it as a structural system in whatever food publication I produce.
